One of the perpetual pages on SinBin.vegas is our Golden Knights Prospect Rankings where we rank every under 23-year-old in the VGK system. The rankings should help to give fans a look at who is close to coming up to the NHL, who has a chance to make a true impact, and give a better sense of each guy in the prospect pool.
What our rankings do not do is compare the Golden Knights’ system to those around the NHL. For that, we need help from those who spend all of their time in focusing on the league’s up-and-comers. One of the best in the world at that is The Athletic’s Corey Pronman. He recently released a ranking of the top 170 hockey players under the age of 23.
The rankings are broken down into tiers including “Bubble elite NHL player,” “NHL All Star,” “Top-of-the-lineup player,” and a few more below it.
Here’s where things get scary for the Golden Knights. They do not have a single prospect listed in any of those three categories. In fact, Vegas’ first prospect is slotted at #69, and he’s the only player in Pronman’s top 100.
That player is Lukas Cormier, who is currently ranked #3 in the SinBin Rankings.
Cormier is just undersized and that will be his main challenge as a pro when it comes to defending. Due to his skating, I don’t think it will be that big an issue, though, and he projects as a top-four defenseman who can help a power play in a notable manner. –Pronman, The Athletic
Vegas’ next player does not appear in the rankings until #112, and their only other player is listed at #115. Those are Brendan Brisson and Ivan Morozov.
If it were evenly distributed, each team should have one in the top 32 (VGK have 0), two in the top 64 (VGK have 0), and three in the top 96 (VGK have 1).
However, what the Golden Knights do have that many of the teams with multiple players ranked in the top 100 is a playoff-caliber roster.
The VGK front office has not been bashful in sending out picks and prospects in a race to continue adding high-end pieces. It’s left the prospect cupboard pretty dry, which in turn puts a lot of pressure on the current roster to perform.
Due to the salary cap and the parity in today’s NHL, the league is somewhat cyclical. Teams go through periods in which they compete for the Stanley Cup, and then inevitably must experience some down years as they rebuild for the next run.
If the Golden Knights were in need of a rebuild right now, not having a single player in the top 50 of an under-23 ranking would be majorly concerning. Luckily, at the moment, they are seemingly still in a Cup window. The question is, when that rebuild does have to start, will Vegas be in a position to acquire a few of these types of guys to speed the process along?
It’s not something to worry about right now, but it is something that has to be considered in the near future.
Jake
Vegas rolled the dice spending money, and giving up young players, to sign older, injury prone players to take advantage of a “Cup Window.”
This plan, has, well, not worked out.
Give ownership and GM, A+ for giving it a try.
Vegas doing well the first seasons but not winning The Cup also means they have had lower rung draft options in each round of the draft.
Pierre S Martin
Time will tell if the Eichel trade will work out. I see that Peyton Krebs is listed at #42 in the All star tier. Losing Tuch and Krebs may be a regret down the line.
Obvious
Ya and maybe Santa is real
Emmanuel
This is not a concern. If they had to rebuild they would move out players for picks.
Tim
Ken there are three truths to the article, one we traded away far to many picks, two we usually drafted near the bottom so unless your lucky your not getting quality players, and three we probably have the weakest farm system of all 32 teams. Now the worst farm system and maybe the 10th best team you would have to say were in trouble. Management did try but over paying for players and giving up to many prospects in trades has come back to bite us in the ass. The final judgement will come from the fans will they be as enthusiastic and show up for games or will the stands start looking a little empty that will be the true test. Like I’ve said Vegas doesn’t follow losers and with no cap relief for at least two years it doesn’t look good.
the hockey God
prospects are crap shoot and over rated,
i wouldn’t put much stock in them, and would trade them for proven NHL , non injury prone, talent any day of week.
Kenny
The fans WILL show up!
Tim
Kenny don’t count on it I’ve seen it happen before. You think people are wild about the Knights believe me when the Running Rebel basketball team had there hay day from 1974 to 1991 you don’t know what wild was. If they think there going to put an inferior product on the ice and people will show there badly mistaken. Worst case scenario Stones backs out and Eichels surgery doesn’t hold up then what Kolesar on the second line good luck with that.
the hockey God
tim
basketball is a not a real sport, your analogy is a failure.
don’t believe the woke crap
Obvious
Pylon krebs….. ba ha ha ha. Not worth a bag of pucks
Out of the 265 rookies this year he had the worst plus minus of them all, not to mention on the sabres as well
And goals last season…. Goaltenders scored more goals than he did
There’s a reason every other team passed on him at the draft. Well,except for fat bastard who hasn’t made a right call since gettting this job
Hats off to titan sports management who promotes the hell out of that useless pylon. They could sell sand to arabs
Kenny
Again I say, the fans WILL show up!
Kenny
Oh I forgot! Doc and the boys are back tomorrow! Happy Labor Day !
knights fan in minny
doc the croc oh boy
Walt
Oh no. Here we go again….Peyton Krebs minus stats. The return of Vlad the Imposter.
Chuckles
What happens to the Steel Grey? So is it Gold, White and new retro?? Or do white get ditched!!
Ogie Ogilthorpe
Meh…. Less than ideal, but far from a reason to push panic buttons.
Whitecloud, Nic Roy, Logan Thompson, Kolesar, even Nic Hague were not uber-highly rated prospects at any time in their career.